Arts Review - Questions to the Arts Community - Annex C
1. Other than providing additional funding, what do you feel The Assembly can/should offer the arts in Wales and how could The Assembly develop its own definitive Arts and Cultural policy?
The Assembly needs to ensure that the arts are strongly promoted and given a much higher status as a vital feature of our national life. Additional investment is crucial to that task and much of the crisis that is affecting us at the moment, particularly in our theatres, stems from the simple fact that the sector has been chronically under-funded by government for years.
There are other contributory factors that The Assembly could be addressing. Firstly, arts and culture need to be separated from their subsidiary position within government as part of the Post 16 Education and Training responsibility and a Culture Secretary appointed with no other duties. Further to that, The Assembly should constitute a National Charter for the Arts, which would set out, in general terms, the policy framework for the arts in Wales. This can and should be reviewed at periodic intervals. It is our strong feeling that as a part of this Charter, The Assembly, as a bilingual body itself, should seek to support the principle of bilingualism, in order to combat ghettoism and linguistic apartheid.
In concert with this, we would like to see a radical overhaul of The Arts Council of Wales.
We do not, however, want to see a Ministry of Culture directly funding the arts on the advice of a panel of so-called “paid experts,” as some have misguidedly argued. Who these “experts” are and where they might come from fills us with deep concern. It is a recipe for cronyism and the old-boys network. Nor, on the other hand, do we want to see directly-funded, so-called “flagship” companies with the rest devolved to regional arts boards, as this will systemise an elitist principle that will lead to greater division across the spectrum of work being provided, setting company against company. It is vital, nevertheless, that a reformed and re-structured Arts Council, given the National Charter’s policy guidelines to work from, should have a balanced and accountable system that maintains a clear distinction between its strategic, managerial and funding roles. We support the idea of the “arms length principle,” but suggest that The Assembly needs to recommend that the existing system be radically overhauled.
2. What should be the principle objectives of an arts and cultural policy for Wales?
The principle objective of our arts and cultural policy should be the promotion and creation of excellence in the arts in Wales and access to it for the majority.
A structure to ensure this should be realised that enhances community access, but, at the same time, recognises the need for a strong, healthy and properly funded, professional structure committed to a high degree of quality. The national lottery has done much to promote community activity through its capital projects and Arts for All awards, but, on the professional side, there has been a debilitating over-emphasis on the needs of buildings and “management,” at the expense of the arts themselves. It is a self-defeating absurdity that marketing, book-keeping and secretarial skills today offer a better opportunity for advancement in the arts than the actual practice of any of the artforms. Good management is essential, but it is now absolutely vital that resources are targetted towards artists and their work to ensure that creative talent has the opportunity to prosper and flourish in a proper context.
3. Should the priority of such a policy be based upon the arts in Wales or on Welsh arts? What should the balance be between the two?
It is questionable as to whether it is possible to define between the arts in Wales and Welsh arts. Art forms evolve and change - as does the Welsh language - as they come into contact with other influences. The arts in Wales, therefore, whatever their roots, affect Welsh arts and vice versa; similarly, Welsh artists are inevitably influenced by international artists when they come to create their own work. It is a natural and organic process: culture is formed through exchange and fusion.
However, if the policy is not for the purpose of advocating a distinctive and indigenous artistic culture, then what is it for? That is not to say that Welsh arts need be culturally prescriptive with a narrow agenda. Indeed, there need be no contradiction between artforms that are seen as traditional (for example, those arts linked with the amateur or eisteddfod contexts) and those that are innovative, as long as the principles of excellence and access are paramount. As a new writing company, moreover, we very much want to see our work reflect the contemporary face of Wales - a nation that is diverse, bilingual, multi-cultural and evolving.
4. Given a "clean sheet", how would you suggest The Assembly structures its funding and management/development of the Arts in Wales?
As we have already argued, we would like to see additional funding, a Culture secretary, the Arts given separate status from Education and Training, a National Charter for the Arts and a reformed Arts Council of Wales, re-structured to provide a clear separation between its policy/strategy, management and funding roles.
In addition to these measures, The Assembly should be co-ordinating with local authorities and encouraging a joint strategic approach to the arts in Wales. As long as the policy framework is established by The National Charter for the Arts, including a minimum percentage that local authorities should dedicate to arts spending, a multi-agency approach need not necessarily lead to the kind of conflict and disharmony that we are now seeing
Furthermore, given that partnerships are now so important in the creative industries and are so strongly desired by government, it would be useful to have a more co-ordinated approach and a focus for links with business and government providers. Although it is relatively straightforward for the large high-profile arts organisations to draw in business sponsorship, and natural for small community-oriented arts groups to find links with government and its agencies, it is very difficult for groups that do not fall easily into these categories, perhaps doing equally valid and important work, to dedicate the time, energy and resources into making these partnerships a practical proposition. It is a particularly tough challenge in the new writing arena, where the writer-led artform often reveals a disquieting and uncomfortable vision, to find suitable partners to work with.
5. In your experience, how open and accessible do you feel The Arts Council of Wales is and have they been prepared to listen to your views and take on board your ideas? Using the Drama Strategy as an example, do you feel the consultation exercise was well managed or were there things which could have been done differently?
In the past, we have assumed that our relationship with The Arts Council was constructive. Papers written by the company over the last ten years have contained suggestions that have eventually found their way into Arts Council proposals. Given a climate of standstill funding from government for four years and a 2.8% increase in the next, Dalier Sylw recognised that change was both necessary and inevitable. As a consequence, we broadly welcomed the draft Drama Strategy, believing that the provision of theatre in Wales needs to be approached holistically with each company being seen as part of the infrastructure and that a re-direction of resources, though painful, might hold out the possibility of a better service, greater flexibility and new priorities.
Having approached this exercise positively, we were disappointed by the ad hoc manner in which the process was managed. The implementation of the New Writing Initiative and the disappearance of Project Funding is a case in point. Due to other pressures early on in the process, the net result was a reversal of strategic aims whereby new writing was left with less funding than was previously the case and, instead of a so-called “enhanced” Project Fund, there is a totally non-existent Project Fund. This is particularly galling for us as long-standing proponents of a national bilingual company for new writing, in that, instead of being seen in its true light as a progressive step for new writing as a whole in Wales, the new company is undermined at its inception by an effective cut in funding of 30% and the attendant controversy when another company is closed down.
Moreover, decisions on which companies to fund and which to cut did not seem to have been made on the basis of an assessment of the artistic standards of the companies, as should have been the case. The Arts Council, despite requests by companies and individual artists, have been very reluctant to make performance reports available. Given the dearth of informed criticisms and reviews of work available, it would have been advisable for The Arts Council to have created an open and more objective process of assessment
6. Do you feel the Council's structure and organisation is appropriate to enable it to develop national arts strategies and to manage the distribution of Assembly funding?
No, in its current state, we do not believe that The Arts Council of Wales has the integrity required for such a role. Following its mismanagement of the Drama Strategy, it has lost the confidence of the practitioners, confused the public and antagonised other funders of the arts. We believe that a fundamental re-structuring of The Arts Council of Wales is the only way forward.
Firstly, we would like to see the council of The Arts Council of Wales, working to a policy framework set out in the National Charter, becoming more of a strategic and listening body, rather than an executive body, with the responsibility to turn the general policy framework into an outline strategy and with the ability to take evidence from interested parties, including practitioners.
Having created the strategy, the management of it could be handed down to a tier of full-time artform managers, under contract to The Arts Council, who should come from a specialist arts background and who would be empowered to make decisions, assess the quality and effectiveness of the work, work to budgets and deliver to the practitioners the support and guidance they require. We emphasise that these appointments should come from outside the current Arts Council and should be offered on a maximum five-year contract basis. These employees should not be bound by impossible notions of “impartiality” or “objectivity”, but should work within parameters laid out by The Assembly (through the Charter) and the council of The Arts Council of Wales (in its overall Strategy) to deliver the highest quality service that is possible. Crucially, however, they must be able and willing to take responsibility for their decisions in the inevitable climate of changing priorities and needs.
Finally, the administration of funding, presently carried out by The Arts Council, could be conducted by its existing bureaucracy, but only in a radically slimmed down form. The prime objective of this arm of the organisation should be to monitor public spending and to be accountable to the will of The Assembly.
In our view, questions will inevitably arise as to whether, for example, a company is producing good quality work, or not. Public funding for that work, as a consequence, can and should come under question. We, for our part, do not believe that companies should never be cut. However, fair assessment of the quality of work is sometimes hard to achieve, as art is prone to subjective opinion. Consensus, moreover, is often easier to find and more often heard in opposition to an idea, than in support of it. To that end, we need The Arts Council to regain its credibility and integrity in order to provide robust leadership, not just for the sometimes selfish needs of the arts community, but to serve the public and to set a high standard of achievement.
To conclude, we believe that fundamental re-structuring of the type we have outlined above could, indeed, provide a leaner and more responsive Arts Council, that would work capably on behalf of the public, but also in collaboration with its clients, for the good of the arts in Wales.
7. In your view how well have the arts been supported across all regions of Wales, particularly in promoting the medium of the Welsh language?
Generally quite well, although we feel that the legacy of theatres built in The Seventies has often concentrated resources in certain areas at the expense of others. Lottery funding has provided communities with support, but the vast sums of money for the refurbishment of buildings should also have had attached to them funds to enable residencies by professionals in order to give practical help and advice. Moreover, Arts for All lottery funding has often been more difficult to achieve for professional companies, particularly those working in the Welsh language, because of the supposedly limited access at stake.
8. Do you agree with the principle of "funding fewer better" i.e. concentrating resources on a lesser number of organisations with a view to significantly improving the quality of productions?
Yes, given the limited funds available. In our dreams, of course, we would like to see substantially more funding across the board, but that is not, and has not been for very many years, a realistic prospect. Additional funding is crucial, but so are creative partnership, collaboration, vision and energy. Indeed, improved revenue funding for fewer companies need not mean fewer opportunities for individual artists at all, so long as there is a coherent strategy underpinning it – provision for a healthy project sector, for example. But what The Assembly should bear most strongly in mind, however, is that the arts provide good value for money and that the returns generated by the public’s investment far outweigh the relatively small amounts of money involved at the outset. The message should be that a properly funded system will pay dividends.
9. Which body/bodies should play a key role in the management and distribution of European funding for the arts?
In addition to the existing International Unit within the Arts Council of Wales, there should be more initiatives like PACT (Performing Arts Co-operation + Touring), which encourages partnerships between venues and performing arts companies in Wales and Ireland. This initiative could be extended to include other individual European countries, as opposed to the existing Culture 2000 initiative, which only supports partnerships between at least three operators within three different European countries.
10. What more can Wales Arts International, or others, do in promoting Wales' creative industries abroad?
We are unsure as to the level of funding and personnel at this department. It seems fairly invisible at the moment, particularly with regard to smaller companies. In our view, the majority of the companies that have been promoted have come almost exclusively from the dance and physical theatre sectors. New writing companies have effectively been marginalised by this approach, presumably due to the language barrier. We would like to see more effective promotion of our own theatre culture within other English-speaking countries, as well as links forged with other bilingual cultures. One of the barriers to increased reputation Welsh dramatists have traditionally experienced is lack of support from within The Arts Council for text-based theatre to be seen outside of Wales.
Perhaps a biennial forum or international showcase could be established to present work to promoters from outside of Wales. Most European capitals have festivals to showcase indigenous work alongside international work, why not here? The Cardiff International Festival was first established in 1991, under the heading "Against the State", in which Dalier Sylw presented Ceri Sherlock's much acclaimed production of “Bacchai” in English and in Welsh. The next festival was titled "Women in the Arts". The final, and vastly watered down festival, was entitled "Fantasy, Fable and Fun!" and, sadly, became part of the summer street festival. It seems that Wales and its capital were not ready, at that time, to be part of serious social and artistic debate.
11. How do you feel the arts can contribute to tackling social exclusion in Wales and what barriers presently exist which hinder the process?
The arts are unique in that they can highlight social exclusion and present discussion and debate in an entertaining and exciting way. Specific forms of theatre and drama-based activity are already playing an extremely important role in the tackling of divisive issues that affect and exist within our communities. In that sense, access to high quality work - standard of practice and quality of experience - at all levels is vital and must be supported.
However, an interesting lesson has been provided by the fact that the Objective One statement on arts was removed from the Single Programme Document. This would seem to reflect EU policy that linked its interest in funding the arts to its output in terms of jobs, economic revival and social cohesion. This is a functional and utilitarian approach that must be challenged. To always privilege socio-economic factors over the actual experience that art can offer (that is, a complex, varied and personal experience) is to participate in the reductive philosophy that the policy is attempting to counter. In short, although it can provide many important and necessary functions within our society, art cannot always be valued simply in terms of its value for money.
As a new writing company, our aim is to be at the cutting edge of ideas about the issues that affect our society in Wales. This work, as has been argued elsewhere, plays a crucial role in reflecting and re-presenting our society to audiences within Wales and beyond. It is central to the project of defining evolving notions of Welsh identity and at the heart of how we are perceived internationally. To be able to do this bilingually is a great step forward, but the linguistic barrier, which still causes so much animosity, albeit below the surface, must be tackled as part of this. Other companies working bilingually can and should help cross this divide.
12. What support should The Assembly be providing to sustain or increase the viability and income of the creative industries in Wales?
Increase investment in work of the highest standard.
Theme Rank
The development of excellence and access 1
Improving the quality of life for individuals and communities 2
Reinforcing the national identity and international status of Wales 2
Promoting artistic talent throughout Wales 3
The importance of the creative industries to employment in Wales 3
Promoting social cohesion and active citizenship through widening
community access to the arts in Wales 5
Supporting education 6
How relevant do you feel the terms of reference are to assessing the arts in Wales?
Very relevant, but, as always, it is very difficult to categorize without generalising.
How does the arts and, in particular your work, contribute to the above themes?
The Contemporary Drama Company of Wales is in the process of being formed, following the successful bid by Dalier Sylw to The Arts Council of Wales in February 2000.
The new company will be:
* A Wales wide initiative - inclusive on the grounds of quality and potential;
* A bilingual company - ensuring equal status to both languages;
* A national structure supporting new writing within other companies;
* Providing a laboratory for research and development, primarily writer centred, but for all aspects of new work;
* Providing support for individual writers in the form of development and to be allies in their career maturity;
* A commissioning company with the ability to produce and co-produce;
* A company with strong links in collaboration with radio and television;
* A company to be an advocate for new writing in and from Wales;
* A company that draws together the disparate strands of new writing, creating a focus for the future of the work.
We are in the process of setting up the following:
* Script reading service available to all
* Network of writing workshops in collaboration with the broadcast media and communities
* A nation-wide commissioning fund to commission new plays
* Co-productions with companies within and outside Wales
During its eleven years, Dalier Sylw toured regularly throughout Wales and gained a reputation for work of the highest standard. The company regularly provided workshops on set texts to schools and also published eleven play-texts, which are now an active and vital part of the GCSE and A level syllabus. These are also available for amateur companies to perform.
What changes need to be introduced to encourage the future development of these themes?
Again, our answer focusses on investment and profile. The stronger the arts community is, the more it can support other work in the wider community. The arts and their contribution to life in Wales must be taken seriously. The arts represent and reflect our nation for what it is, as well as, providing a reference point for future generations. Through the arts, we can be entertained, but also educated; we can celebrate our society, but, at the same time, seriously examine and challenge its taboos and shortcomings. To that end, we should always pursue excellence at all levels.
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